12/29/09 Castle Rock

If not for a really fun and beautiful outing today, the day would have sucked.

I'll start with the bad stuff. First, Gabriel had a rare crying episode this morning when the leg broke off a teddy-bear pancake I'd made. By itself this isn't bad, but this kid does not let go of things easily, and he carried on for nearly half an hour, with Katrina joining in when I refused to serve her after numerous rude demands (she refused to say please). I had some fantasy of calling my sister and brother today, but this noise level made it impossible.

There's also a seriously increasing problem of Gabriel attacking Julia. Boys will be boys, and brothers especially will be very physical together, but too many times, Julian is left howling in pain for a relatively minor offense. I know he can be a pain, but getting kicked in the back for make a stupid sound repeatedly is too much. Today the attacks happened more times than I can count, though Julian dished out his share too, including a deep bite on Gabriel's hand. Naturally, that cost Julian dearly.

They really, really needed to get out.

But we had a long delay leaving because of a major Katrina tantrum. She refused to go to the bathroom before getting in the car, a strict rule. And there was no leeway here -- she hadn't gone for a while, and we were going to be in the car for a long time. I was SO frustrated alternatively trying to persuade her and threatening her with taking her to Tonya's, while the boys were ready, in the car, and pounding each other. I threatened to put a diaper on her, but wouldn't you know it, I gave away all our diapers yesterday. I was ready to take her to Kid Park, a place where you can do drop-in childcare, and again she was fine with that.

But finally, finally, she relented. By then I was a wreck, teetering on complete insanity, seething with frustration, ready to put up all three for adoption.

Few things soothe the soul more than getting outside and into the mountains. I made a fortunate navigation error, which meant we took Page Mill Road, a twisty scenic road I used to know like the back of my hand from motorcycling. The kids loved the detour, fascinated by the road features and the views. Still, Katrina was excited to get to "Rock Castle," our state park destination (really Castle Rock).

Castle Rock is a wonderful state park in the Santa Cruz mountains, with one of my all-time favorite hiking trails. We weren't there to hike though, we were there to walk the 3/10 mile to the huge rocks, with fascinating formations and caves and all sorts of stuff to climb on.


Katrina at first insisted on staying in the stroller.


This actually was stressful for me; I wanted to follow the boys and see how they got used to the climbing before not worrying about them. The odds of someone stranding themselves or falling are high there.

Gabriel jumped right in, excitedly exploring every crevice, wiggling through tunnels, climbing up to the tops.








Julian was typically hesitant at first, but it didn't take long for him to relax and start exploring farther than Gabriel did.






In fact, I made the mistake of blurting out without thinking, "Wow, Julian, you're a really good climber!" It went to his head and he kept trying to show off. But it's true; usually Gabriel is better at gross-motor-skill things, and Gabriel has a big age advantage, but Julian was surprisingly more agile and courageous. Gabriel is very competitive though, and several times he saw Julian scale some obstacle that Gabriel had tried and given up on, then he tried again and got through it.

The boys had a great time exploring and playing, and I gave them free rein, quelling a small thread of fear that one of them would get trapped or stuck when I was too far away to help in time. But you have to let kids go, and actually they were both pretty careful. (As babies/toddlers, none of my kids showed any particular ability or inclination to climb.)






I like to climb too, though cold hands and minding a grumpy toddler hampered that.


Katrina, typically, did not take to this right away. At first, she'd barely even walk on level ground without holding my hand.


Then she tried climbing through a very easy tunnel, and got all scared. I didn't rescue her, instead coaxing her to climb out herself.


I carried her around the back of the rocks and up onto a small plateau with a level area leading to a shallow cave. This turned her around. She relaxed and had a great time playing in "her" cave.




Then she got brave enough to try some other caves too.




In the end, it looked like I was going to have a problem getting them all out of there, but it was late enough and they were hungry enough that some granola bars tore them away.


We had a nice drive home and an overall good afternoon and evening. Gabriel and I made two batches of cookies from my new old cookbook, I Know How To Cook (a new translation of a classic French cookbook that my grandmother used). The kids were tired and had an early bath and a movie. I have to say, it's weird when they're watching a movie, so quiet. I can't turn off my Mom "it's too quiet" alarms.

Aside from yet another fraternal impact incident, they went to bed tired and without any trouble. And we now have another Top 10 Favorite place to go.

12/29/09

12/28/09 7 days for 6 strings

This morning, Julian and Katrina were unbearably adorable. They spent the better part of an hour with Julian reading a fairy book to her, both completely absorbed in the story. I think Julian was more into it than she was!


We've had ~gasp~ rain here on and off the last few days, and I've learned something about Katrina: she loves rain. She grabs her rain jacket the moment she realizes it's raining, puts on her boots, and goes right outside. Two nights ago, Dave had to insist she come inside, because it had been dark for over half an hour and it was dinnertime -- never mind cold and raining, that was fine with her. She threw a huge fit about having to come in. She very very happily plays in the dirt and mud, singing to herself the whole time outside.

She is an odd little bird sometimes!

We've rediscovered our little ukulele, and Gabriel has been tackling learning it again (though we lost our little instructional book on it). It's eerie hearing him play something on the ukulele, then duplicate it exactly on the piano, chord for chord, note for note. Tonight, I caught a little video of a very rare thing for him: singing while playing.

He's no Elvis, but it's interesting seeing him work through a song (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in this case).

There's a precedent for string-instrument "Twinkle" in his life.

(Cellist: Anna Vazquez, Papa Paul's daughter.)
(Oh my this brings a tear to my eye...even at 6 months old, he had such an intensity about him. Maybe that's just me seeing it. And she is so good with kids.)

It was so cute seeing him hanging out in a chair and going between trying to play a specific tune, and just strumming idly -- musical tinkering, if you will. You can just about see the music coursing through him -- it's just in him, even if it doesn't show up all the time.


Meantime, Julian was on the piano. Given the rainy afternoon, and the destruction the boys were engaging in earlier in their room, I was sorely tempted to resort to the video route (we have "Ice Age" from the library, as yet unwatched), but as is usually the case, somehow they find their own entertainment. Seeing both boys working on their instruments, while Katrina happily prattled about outside in the rain, I was once again glad I didn't go there. Even if the walls in their room and my vocal chords had to suffer for it.

Lately, Julian's been practically studying the piano. He's been working really hard actually, teaching himself tunes from the piano's preprogrammed ones. Gabriel does the same thing, but their styles are very different. Unlike Gabriel, Julian almost always sings along, he doesn't do any chords, and he doesn't try to play fast. But he tries more songs and he's more experimental with the musical aspects with each song. Like Gabriel, he spends hours playing and practicing.

(Dave and I are talking about lessons for Julian now. That will be interesting. Julian doesn't show the same sort of skill or talent that Gabriel does, but generally by nature he's more open to instruction. And Julian also has a musicality, a creativity, about him I don't see in Gabriel, who I see as more of a "technical" musician. Julian finds freedom in music; Gabriel finds order in it. For the record, Dave doesn't quite agree with this characterization, and indeed, it's very vague and subjective.)

Meantime, Dave and I also mused that maybe a kid-sized guitar is needed here. Gabriel's eyes got huge at the idea, but we were prepared: he doesn't take good enough care of the ukulele to get a real six-string guitar yet. So we set up an agreement: 7 days for 6 strings. That is, if he takes PERFECT care of the ukulele for 7 days -- no running with it, no putting his feet all over it, no holding it up Pete Townsend-style to threaten his brother, no leaving it on the floor -- then we'll talk about getting a guitar.

Then we put the 7 days in writing on a calendar, countdown style, with a line for each day to put a check or an X. I give it 10% he'll meet his end of the agreement -- Gabriel can be very motivated, but he's still just a 7-year-old kid who doesn't think past what his next gross-out noise will be.

Truth is, I hope he makes it. I'd like to learn a little guitar myself.

12/28/09

12/27/09 And so it goes....

...our tree, that is. Not only did we get it on the early side, so it's getting really dry, but the cleaners are coming tomorrow. It seems early, but we might as well put away the Christmas ornaments and take down the tree now. And try to get the house under control; every room was strewn with toys.

An unusual event today at the Doudna house: a playdate! Here? Us?! No thanks to me. So far, every home playdate the boys have had -- about 4 all told -- have been arranged and overseen by Dave. Dave's former coworker has an 8-year-old 3rd-grader, Kirin, who lives in Ohio, but visits his Dad during holidays, and his Dad looks for kid-company for him. (The Dad also flies to Ohio every other weekend to see his son, and talks to him at least twice a day.) He's a nice kid -- plays the piano and takes Spanish, so we had a lot to talk about. I was surprised how much the boys were looking forward to it, and overall they all had a great time.

Still, there came a time when I had to pay more attention than I really wanted to or could, as Gabriel and Kirin were acting bored. Unfortunately, when two 8-year-old boys are bored, by far the best entertainment is beating up on the 6-year-old younger brother. Like tormenting him by playing Monkey In The Middle with, of all things, his favorite monkey. Julian's no match for Gabriel and an older pal, but he wants to play with them, and so can't be persuaded to just avoid them. Still, I can see that future playdates will take some planning. Gabriel is highly liable to butt in and take over Julian's playdates too.

Julian is loving the book The Stunning Science of Everything. Tonight, he went in search of a pencil to fill in some blanks on a sort of quiz page the book has, but it's really not a workbook; the blanks are small and on glossy pages and really are more for verbal quizzes. Dave wouldn't let him have a pencil to ruin the book, but I intervened. I try not to intervene most of the time, but I could see Julian had his thinking cap on. It's his book, and it does have blanks, but mostly, he REALLY WANTED to do a project.

This is a quality in him I never really saw until kindergarten, but I see it all the time now. He doesn't have Gabriel's intense focus -- few do -- but he is very very committed to projects and completing things. I found him studying the Spanish books I got him for his birthday today too, books I thought we'd mostly do together. (We're going to have fun with this, both boys want to learn Spanish now, and I do too.) Dave and I are surprised -- and shouldn't be anymore -- on a weekly basis at how much information Julian absorbs -- and retells. Gabriel might have learned the same amount in kindergarten, but he never talked about it to the extent Julian does. But Gabriel never took it upon himself to do workbooks (or things that look like it), and was far far more difficult to motivate to do school projects.

Katrina was funny with Uday today too (Kirin's Dad). She's not super social, we're learning, but one-on-one with some adults, she turns into a chatty little star. And she did that with Uday today, clearly taken with him, vocalizing whatever little thought flitted through her head. When she does this, people always exclaim they never heard her talk so much, which is odd to hear for me, though I know it's true. She's very very talkative at home, but she reserves this quality for certain people and situations away from home.

Maybe it is time to venture into the world of playdates, if I can figure out how to juggle my self-centered life with my childrens' needs! (I really do need to work on those closets...)

12/27/09

12/26/09 Julian is SIX!

My boy -- six years old!! I can't believe it.

I can't say the day was all fun & games though. I went running in the morning, and threatening weather ruled out my usual default pasttime (hiking). Kids needed to get out though, and I needed to do some "research" for my project to reorganize the boys room. So, I trucked the bunch up to Ikea. On the day after Christmas. What WAS I thinking.

Katrina was supposed to be taking a nap, but she heard us leaving and came running after us in a Pull-Up. So, she came with us. Thank goodness, Gabriel insisted on all the stroller-pushing, that actually made things a lot easier.

I'm thinking of replacing the boys' two dressers with one huge one. And this fits the bill: it's huge all right. The rest of their clothes would go in their closet, which right now only has a useless hanging pole. I don't know, this is pretty massive, but it fits the space perfectly.

I also bought a rug for their room, though it's in our family room temporarily in an effort to absorb some of the awful racket. I hate buying furniture on impulse, with no plan, just to get something in there, but, that's exactly what we did.

This set me behind to make what I'd planned for dinner, and I hadn't even started Julian's cake! I went to the grocery store with the intention of buying him one, but decided against it because there weren't any small enough. Besides, Gabriel said something the other day that was along the lines of shock that I'd buy a cake. "Of COURSE you make a cake!" This from the same kid who also asked with complaint why we were the only kids who don't get storebought cakes (which is SO not true). I guess he meant "only kids who don't get storebought cakes whose mothers can actually decorate cakes."

Anyway, Dave pointed out that if I use a mix and canned frosting, to them, it's still "making" the cake. So I set aside my new baking snobbery and quickly whipped up a cake. Me and Duncan Hines, that is.


After cake time, it was gift-opening time. A major affair, because most of Julian's birthday presents from his party hadn't been opened yet either.

(I'd used the birthday presents as a very serious consequence for obnoxious behavior, which he continued -- even after he saw me storming off with an armload of unopened birthday presents. My kids are immune to consequences that don't involve fingerprints on their rear ends! I should qualify that to: my boys. Katrina, for all her "spirited" behavior, has never earned herself more than a light tap on her hand once or twice.)

Quite the bounty, and this doesn't include some things he did get to open!


Yay six!


12/26/09

Christmas gift

I can't believe I forgot to post this photo on Christmas day, one of a very very special gift from my thoughtful (!) husband.


This is a beautiful all-wooden model of a B-17G, and its nose art is even that of the B-17 I flew on (the Nine O Nine). I just can't take my eyes off it.

The more stories I read of men (and a few women) who had experiences on these planes, the more it takes on a life of its own. Historically, it seems there is disagreement as to the effectiveness of the daylight precision bombing campaigns the B-17s were so instrumental in, but there's no question they had a huge role in many many veterans' experiences. Maybe I like it so much because it's so basic and so tough, not a star technically, nothing sleek or sexy to look at -- but eminently fixable, and brought so many guys home alive despite unspeakable damage.

I really, really hope the Collings Foundation will be flying the Wings Of Freedom tour again next year; I'll be the first to sign up for a flight on one of the very few B-17s still left flying. It won't be long before that part of military aviation history will be forever grounded. But at least I can see it captured in my living room every day now.

Gift-giving time is often a struggle for husbands, and Dave would be the first to say he's right up there in that category, but this was a really special, thoughtful and meaningful one to me. Thank you dear!

12/25/09 Christmas Day!

For a lot of people, Christmas is a religious holiday. It really isn't for us, so it turns into one about Stuff instead. And now, food too. Fortunately our kids are pretty cool with waiting for present-opening until after breakfast. They didn't even eat the chocolate coins Santa left for them in their stockings.

BIG breakfast first! Zucchini frittata, cranberry harvest muffins, brioche french toast, and the only fruit we have right now, apples.


Julian got two similar books -- similar idea that is, but different books (one from grandparents, one from Santa). I love these new sorts of books for kids now, they're colorful and fun to look at, and filled with interesting things about the world. Educational, perhaps, though that word is a bugaboo for me now. They're fun and the boys love them.


Gabriel really liked his book from Bonne Maman and Papa Paul too.


It isn't Christmas without Legos! Thank you Aunt Laura and Uncle Ryan!!


This is amusing: this kit says it's for ages "10+". Julian finished it in about 20 minutes without any help at all.



Katrina's first gift was perfect: another building toy. I had Tinker Toys as a kid and loved them.



Katrina got this adorable dress/legging set from Aunt Laura and Uncle Ryan. Brown dress and brown/pink striped leggings. The funny thing is, she also got a dress set from Bonne Maman and Papa Paul: brown/pink striped dress and brown leggings!! (I didn't get a photo unfortunately)


Then we add a dress-up rainbow skirt to the outfit, and we're done. Project Runway, here we come!


Katrina and I had matching Christmas bows in our hair today.


I got an awesome cookbook: "I know how to cook," a translation of a classic French cookbook "Je sais cuisiner." My mother told me later this was her mother's standard cookbook, and it's filled with fascinating, many very simple, and very diverse recipes and methods. Katrina had a great time looking through it with me, and I loved the rare cuddle time with her.


She got her own fun book to look at: you just can't go wrong with Richard Scarry.


This was Gabriel's big gift -- not the Nintendo DS he asked for, but it'll do. Not surprisingly, he loves it.

I didn't get a photo of Julian and his build-it Robo car thing, which is disappointing since it already broke.

Still, by late afternoon we all needed to get OUT. Dave took the boys to the BMX park in the last hour of daylight, and Katrina and I hastily joined. I got a few shots of Gabriel tackling the deepest drop in the park. He goes on all the hills and every obstacle on the course now, though he doesn't jump or flip or anything -- yet.





I was late starting Christmas dinner -- I have to learn to plan ahead better so that I'm not scrambling in the kitchen while kids are hungry or impatient to open presents (though again ours were very relaxed about it all and didn't make a huge deal about opening). Still, I pulled off a very simple rack of lamb that I LOVED, and I had a surprise fan for this too: Gabriel. He loves lamb!


I wonder if someday, when they're grown, the Stuff will be forgotten, but the elaborate breakfast and dinner will be what they take with them. I have to be prepared for that not to happen -- as kids me and my sister and brother were never really into food either. That's a very recent development for me. Still, I have to believe I'm setting a high bar so they will someday look forward to coming home for Christmas for Mom's cooking.

It was a really, really nice relaxed pleasant day with just us and our Stuff around the tree, a short sanity outing, lots of good food, and just being together.

12/25/09

12/24/09 Letter to Santa

At what age do they stop believing in Santa?

Today we discovered NORAD, told to us by a furniture-shop owner (we're among the very few people who shop for a dining table on Christmas Eve, apparently), which lets them track Santa as he makes his way around the world. It includes photos and videos of places where Santa stops, so it turns out to also be a great way to talk about other places around the world. We all want to go see Machu Picchu in Peru now!

NORAD renewed Gabriel's faith in the existence of Santa enough to not only write him a letter, but place it facing the fireplace, so Santa can read it the moment he alights on the hearth.





Dave explained to me later that really, this note is rooted more in skepticism than faith. It's a test. If Gabriel really is awarded a radio-controlled car, a Nintendo DS, $100, Snap Circuits Extreme, and p.s., walkie-talkies, then apparently Santa must really exist.

I remember well as a kid enjoying so much getting presents not only from Santa, but from his elves, reindeer, and even the mysterious "Z." We always had Christmas up at our country house -- for many years my Dad's house in upstate rural NY and now my brother and sister's weekend getaway. This was normal Christmas for us, though now I realize that it didn't include many common Christmas things, like a huge feast or extended family. But that's the way it was, and we loved it. We got a lot of gifts anyway, we made many of our tree decorations, we cut down our own tree on our own land, and loved being in the country for a usually white Christmas (remember that we were coming from uber-urban NYC). It was such a magical winter place that we believed in Santa for long past most kids did.

I'm continuing the tradition of making gifts "from" funny sources (this year, from Donner, Dasher, Comet, and once again, the mysterious Z), but we also have a new tradition of having one unwrapped gift ready, from Santa. This should have a practical angle too: it delays the 6am Christmas wakeup call, as they'll each have something new to play with (or in this case, look at) right away. That's the theory, anyway.


It was fun tonight wrapping their gifts, stuffing their stockings and getting ready for tomorrow. A whole new angle to Christmas, one of those things that the kid-life puts you into that you didn't expect, from the outside seems like a drag, but really, is total fun.

Merry Christmas!

12/24/09

12/23/09 Christmas Eve Eve

I wish I could say we did something more holiday-ish and fun than what we did: go to the gym (the one that shows Tom & Jerry videos in the childcare), and then Lowe's to check out closet systems. My biggest accomplishment for the day was figuring out how to set up the kids' closets, by discovering a Web site that makes it easy to design and order the closets. Woo-hoo.

But really, setting up the kids' closets is the first link in a long chain of events that should lead to fewer toys scattered all over the floor. And it's long overdue. We should have moved into the house with this stuff done, and I don't want to wait until we move out!

12/23/09

12/22/09 Park Day

What, me take kids to the park? That's what Moms are supposed to do, right? I haven't done it in ages. But even working moms do it a lot, I hear.

I'm OK with park-hanging if I have other moms to chat with, or something to do, like sports stuff with the kids. And I've always had other grownups to chat with, thanks to my mom's groups and park playdates. We used to go to the park a lot, but in retrospect, I didn't take them to parks very often by myself. Incredibly, I get bored.

Today there was a bitter wind and it was cold, so without some grownup company, I'd never have gone. But I'm really glad we did; it's always good to get out, and the kids really needed that sort of stretch-your-leg outdoor time today.

Swings are always a big attraction. I'm SO done with standing and pushing kids on swings. Gabriel finally learned today how to pump himself. Julian tried half-heartedly, but gave up easily.


Meantime Dylan and Katrina played on the slide together happily.


Then on the airplane together, less happily. Dylan takes (or better yet, ignores) Katrina's bossy orders good-naturedly.


Somehow the littler boys got up here too, it's about a 4-foot sheer wall to climb to get to the top of this shed. Betsy saw the older kids pull Dylan up, which must explain how Julian got up there too. We put the kibosh on this; if it were just Gina and Gabriel, fine, but too many kids up there is asking for trouble. But not before I got a photo.


Then the little kids found the little swings.


Did I say I was done with pushing swings??

Katrina loved the swing this time; last time I tried it with her she was much younger and cried right away, unlike her older older brother who always loved swings. But exactly like her older older brother, she threw a big tantrum about having to get out of the swing, reminding me of yet another reason why swings, along with balloons and lollipops, are on my hitlist of classic childhood favorites.

I relished watching the boys run as hard as they could for a long time, and it paid off. When we got home, Gabriel was pooped, for a while. Katrina was a nightmare, fussing and tantruming at just about everything, even things I had nothing to do with ("I don't WANT my puppet!"). I had really had it with her -- I'm DONE with swings and carrying toddlers and REALLY done with tantrums!! -- and put her in her room for a nap. Incredibly, she took one.

Gabriel bugged me all afternoon to learn about computers. This got started last night when he asked me what a "router" was, remembering our hours spent troubleshooting our home network. He wanted to look at the circuitry of a screen, still not completely understanding that except for laptops, computers are separate from the screens. I kept having to put him off (Katrina), but he wouldn't let up. He wanted to take something apart and see the "ICs" (integrated circuits). I don't know if we have anything around here he can safely take apart, but fortunately Santa has an electronics kit in mind, if Gabriel can wait that long. I know some engineers who are engineers not just by training, but by nature...I wonder if this is what it looks like when they're almost 8.

Some Christmas cheer tonight: we got caroled! I answered the door to a group of about 20 people singing, just as Gabriel was running out of the bathroom buck-nekkid after a bath. I shoo'd him upstairs, then the other two came down, curious. Julian was scared at first and wouldn't come out, but Katrina came to the door and listened to the carolers. It was really nice, I loved it.

The kids were all just done with their bath, early, because I was about to take them to a great Christmas lights display in Sunnyvale that is coordinated with music that they broadcast over the radio.


The boys loved it; though typically Katrina found fault with just about everything. Julian liked the music and watched intently in silence. Gabriel wanted to know all about how they transmitted the music over the radio and wanted to see all the circuitry that controlled the lights, and really wants us to do something like that too. And, maybe he will.

12/22/09

12/21/09 Turn it in

I turned in my laptop and badge to work today -- my contract is done!

The boys went to winter camp at the CDC for today, but Katrina's preschool is closed, so I had her to myself all day. I took her to work to turn in my laptop, which she was enthusiastic about. "Are we going to your work job??" she asked several times. She was surprisingly quiet and calm in the office, including while I chatted with (now former) coworkers, some of whom had heard stories of her outrageous tantrums. Her peaceful demeanor made me sound like a real exaggerator. The skepticism that this darling tiny little girl could be such a tyrant was palpable.

It was a really, really nice day with her alone, so different than when the boys are with us too. Though I have to dig a little to find patience for the toddler-life (taking 5 minutes to get in or out of the car, persuading and making up games to get her to get ready to go, waiting while she insists on finishing a puzzle, handling yet another floor tantrum at Starbucks), it's much easier to find that patience when it's just me and her. The boys require a whole different type of patience and handling, and I just can't find both kinds in me at the same time.

Even though I know this about her, I was again taken by how very, very well she plays on her own. She goes upstairs and plays in the boys' room for hours -- I even (sort of) got to take a nap, until a balloon got stuck and she asked for help with it.

Normally this maternal inattention would be accompanied by a pang of guilt -- nowadays parents are expected to "stimulate" and "develop" children at all hours -- but in Katrina's case, she so rarely gets non-stimulated downtime at home that I gave her all the space she needed today -- guilt-free. Her brothers give her plenty of stimulation. Unfettered concentrated time to play without being interrupted or distracted, and without having her hair pulled or toys taken, is a golden prize. She sings and chats to herself the whole time. Sometimes I turn down the radio just to listen to her expressive little voice happily yammering away.

All good things must come to an end though, and it was with regret that I went to retrieve her monster brothers. They wasted no time in resuming their latest running game, in which they tear around the house full-speed, usually colliding at some barrier. Today that game had a brief break when Julian was in the lead and tried to make a break for it through a dark hallway to the sitting-room door. That was closed. He ran face-first into the door, leaving sweat marks on it, and was knocked to the ground. He was shocked into wailing loudly for about 10 minutes, but then he and Gabriel were right back at it.

Gabriel was so out of control, shouting and slamming doors, that I eventually had to send him to his room for a cooloff. When I first told him to go up, he stood on the steps defiantly and looked at me icily and retorted "NO!" I was furious and stalked toward him, glaring into his eyes, put my face up to his and said, "YOU MAY NOT SAY NO!" But he stood his ground as I approached, not intimidated. Practicality won out and he backed off and went upstairs -- I am still bigger than he is after all. For now.

Tomorrow starts 2 weeks with all three of them at home...I think I'll be looking forward to school starting again! But today's good memory of listening to Katrina singing happily will carry me through.

12/21/09